My husband flinched and looked at me. Then the bully in him, which always lay underneath, came uppermost.
"Look here, Mary," he said. "I came for an explanation and I intend to have one. Your father may give this affair what gloss he pleases, but you must know as well as I do what rumour and report are saying, so we might as well speak plainly. Is it the fact that the doctor has made certain statements about your own condition, and that your father is giving this entertainment because . . . well, because he is expecting an heir?"
To my husband's astonishment I answered:
"Yes."
"So you admit it? Then perhaps you'll be good enough to tell me how that condition came about?"
Knowing he needed no explanation, I made no answer.
"Can't you speak?" he said.
But still I remained silent.
"You know what our relations have been since our marriage, so I ask you again how does that condition come about?"
I was now trembling more than ever, but a kind of forced courage came to me and I said: